After modeling for numerous advertisements and companies, Abraham made his film debut with Jism (2003), which earned him a Filmfare Best Debut Award nomination. This was followed by his first commercial success, Dhoom (2004). He received two Filmfare nominations, for his negative roles in Dhoom, and then in Zinda (2006). He later appeared in the major critical success Water (2005). In 2007, he was nominated under the category of Best Supporting Actor at Filmfare for the movie Baabul.

Career

Modelling

Abraham started his career with the media firm Time & Space Media Entertainment Promotions Ltd., which, however, closed down due to financial problems. Later, he worked for Enterprises-Nexus as a media planner. In 1999, he won the Gladrags Manhunt Contest and went to The Philippines for Manhunt International, where he won second place. Following this, he was signed on by Carrie Models' in Singapore and did a bit of modelling there, and later in Hong Kong, London and New York City. He also appeared in a number of commercial advertisements and in music videos for singers like Pankaj Udhas, Hans Raj Hans and Babul Supriyo. To improve his acting skills, Abraham joined Kishore Namit Kapoor acting lab and completed a course on acting while juggling modelling assignments.

Acting career

Abraham made his acting debut in 2003 with Jism, a thriller in which he co-starred with Bipasha Basu. The film was a moderate box office success and his performance was recognised by critics.[2] It was while making of this film that Abraham and Basu started dating each other. Later the same year came the paranormal thriller Saaya (2003), which was a commercial and critical failure. It was followed by a number of failures, including Pooja Bhatt's directorial debut Paap (2004) and Ahmed Khan's Lakeer (2004).

After having appeared in these films, Abraham was signed for a role in Dhoom in 2004, an action film produced by Yash Raj Films. He played the villainous role of Kabir. The film was a big commercial success and emerged as one of the highest grossers of that year.[3]

In 2005 he starred in the supernatural thriller Kaal and the comedy Garam Masala both of which did well at the box office.[4] Later that year, he had a major role in the critically acclaimed film Water, which portrayed the tragic fate of Hindu widows in British India of the 1930s. The film was written and directed by independent Canadian film-maker Deepa Mehta. It was popular overseas, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Academy Awards.

Nikhil Advani's multi-starrer Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute to Love was Abraham's first release in 2007. The movie failed to do well at the Indian box office,[7] though it did well in the overseas markets.[8] His last two 2007 releases included the arthouse thriller No Smoking and the sports film Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal.

Personal life

John has his own fashion line: his brand (JA) clothes, which primarily features his favorite article of clothing, jeans.[9]

Abraham also associates himself deeply in the social causes and urges youngsters also to join hands in this humanity mankind.

“

"I work for social causes that I address. I love animals and I work for PETA. I have my own brigade called John's brigade for Habitat for Humanity, Habitat For Humanity is a Jimmy Carter foundation project."

”

John said when asked about his work.[10][11]. He was also associated with the famous Lilavati Hospital of Mumbai where he donated a cheque of 10 lakhs towards the hospital funds.[12]

In January 2009, John took his charitable activities to a new level and led a group of Indian celebrities in the Mumbai Marathon, an event to benefit the United Way.[13]

Media

In 2008 John became the first Indian ever to feature in the '25 Sexiest Men' list compiled by E! News and was ranked as the 7th sexiest man in the world.[14] In the same year, UK magazine Eastern Eye named Abraham the "Sexiest Man In Asia".[15]